IX. High Time

Story so far:
Siri found herself in another stifle that she hadn’t expected First it was her dad who had told her to concentrate on her studies and then Suhas trying to persuade her to talk to him every once in a while. While she was trying to make another decision battling that dilemma, her mother asked her what she thought of marriage for which she didn’t answer much because she was trying to contain whatever she wanted to say to herself. While that bugged her mind, her aunt a couple months later asked her a similar question whether to start searching for a groom since she had reached the marriageable age and this time she just couldn’t contain her composure and told her aunt about Suhas. Her aunt had assured her that everything will be alright and that she needed worry much about that since she would speak to her mother. But little did Siri expect what was to happen next.Read on…

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The months that followed had Siri’s interaction with her mother deteriorating. They used to talk every once in a while given the fact that they both were in completely different cities and so, they used to catch up as often as they could over the phone. But lately the interactions have decreased and on top of it, Siri started feeling that her mother wasn’t that much into talking to her compared to how excited she was a month ago. She suspected that her aunt might have conveyed the information to her and she was cross because she didn’t tell her about that when she asked her a couple months ago. This drifting went on for a while and Siri was completely devasted with the thought of her mom not talking to her properly. With time, Siri started to feel really bad for keeping her mom in the dark and also choosing to tell her aunt first instead of her. To Siri, her family always came first and this was heartbreaking for her and she was considering to take an off from Suhas until she got a chance to explain the things in person however hard and impossible it might have seemed to her. She just couldn’t bear the thought of seeing her mom sad and moreover not talking to her. But as it turns out, she couldn’t put Suhas in such a hard spot nor could she tell her mom what was going on. The two chains were practically pulling her apart on the inside.

The first year ended in a jiffy with all the melodrama and the college aesthetics playing their part. The second year saw some changes and the foremost one of them was her moving back to the city she did the majority of her college from. The project work she had taken up was in that city and she chose it for a reason because it was convenient on so many grounds. She used to travel back to her college once a month or so to report about her progress on the project. The project she had taken up went over her head but she had to do it within deadlines. Suhas, the genius, was there with her every step of her project and in retrospect, he did the most work for her project, maybe even 90% of that. All her project assignments were praised and that was actually Suhas’s mind at work. He was clearly managing two projects at the same time, his own and even Siri’s. His talent was never in the question and to say that he was doing two things at the same time gave him an added quotient. While the college was on a linear slope, the bridges at home were burning. Siri wanted to tell everything, but she wasn’t sure how to.

A couple months into the second year she had finally talked to her mom and her mom was clearly very disappointed for too many reasons. One, she wasn’t expecting this from her daughter. Two, she didn’t tell anything about it to her. Three, she chooses to tell her aunt even when she had asked her about it way earlier than her. However, she was disappointed, she didn’t seem to have much say in the matter and had told that Siri only has to relay the information to her dad. That was entirely Siri’s responsibility. She also knew that she had to own up and express to her father. Meanwhile, the college was about to come to an end and the campus drive was in full-fledged. She managed to secure a job in an MNC and she was to start the work a little after her college was over. Suhas, on the other hand also managed to secure a job in a little better-paying company. The relationship between Siri and Suhas didn’t hinder over the course of time, if anything at all that might have happened, it just got a little stronger. It always got stronger by the day, however the adversities and however high the hurdles.

Siri and Suhas discussed at length about how to convey to their parents. He conveyed that he could manage his side of the family but Siri’s one was a bit difficult. Firstly, her dad had told both of them to not indulge in that and Siri’s guilt was overpowering her. She had somehow told her mom and she was on board as long as her dad agrees as well. Suhas was dead scared to approach Siri’s dad and ask her daughter’s hand in marriage. He had told Siri that she only has to tell her dad as he won’t be able to, contrary to what he had told her at the start of the relationship that he will convince her parents as well since that was one thing Siri had told at the point of time that she was okay with the relationship as long as he manages to convince her parents. Suhas was high on love at that time and he thought he would be able to do that once he gets a job and becomes worthy of her daughter. A lot of things have happened meanwhile and Suhas was now scared to talk to her father. So, it all fell on Siri and she was to convince her dad about their union.

One fine afternoon, she gathers up all the courage and approaches her dad to tell about everything that had been happening. She starts to cry even before saying anything. Her dad figures out that she was going to talk about something important and something she was feeling guilty about because otherwise, she wouldn’t have tears in her eyes. Her dad tells her one thing that, “The ones who cry are the ones who do something wrong” and continues asking her whether she did something wrong. She immediately wipes her tears and regains her composure to tell him everything she had come to tell, about her relationship and also her marriage.

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What was Siri’s dad’s response? Will she get what she had wanted all her life?(To be continued …)